Attitude and Perspective

I have spent a large chunk of my life with a shitty, hopeless, poor me attitude. And boy did my daily life ever reflect that. My dad used to tell me all the time, ‘You can’t control or change others, you are only in control of yourself.’ I honestly thought that was a load of crap for the longest time. I grew up feeling like a victim of my circumstances. Why was I born fat? (I wasn’t, I just developed emotional eating habits at a young age) Why wasn’t I good at anything? (I was, I just never spent enough time working on any of my natural talents to develop them properly) Why was I stuck in a cycle of poverty? (I wasn’t, I was just undisciplined and unprepared to do the hard work and make a stable income). I wasted a lot of years feeling pitifully sorry for myself and feeling like these areas of my life were outside of my control.

Fortunately, I was blessed with a very determined *cough*stubborn*cough* streak at a very young age so while I felt very out of control about my situation, I also refused to quit fighting to find answers. Of course because I’m so completely determined/stubborn, I kept looking in the wrong places for the wrong answers. I never did have a grand epiphany about working on controlling my thoughts, attitudes, and perspectives. I can’t pinpoint exactly when it all started to change. But it’s only really been in the last couple of years that I’ve finally realized the power I hold in how I view the world around me and the events of my everyday life.

I truly believe in the idea that you get back what you put out into the world. I’ve tested it repeatedly and found it to be very true. If you continuously look for the negative, not only will you always be able to find it, you’ll also attract more to yourself and your world. If you can only see what you don’t have, you will never have enough and what you do have will eventually be lost as well. Conversely, if you can look for the opportunities and lessons in your days, in every event and situation that arises, and spend time being grateful for each and every good thing you can find in your life, you will grow and flourish and attract the stuff of your wildest dreams.

I recently started reading Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I didn’t read the summary before I bought it. I only knew that I loved the thoughts and ideas I found on his website and my mom recommended the book to me. It turns out, it’s all about exactly what I’ve been learning in terms of controlling and protecting myself in what goes on in my mind. It goes so much further than just changing your thought processes. It gets into actually harnessing the power of your mind…exercising it like you would any other muscle. It talks about not viewing the happenings of life as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but rather experiencing them and persistently looking for opportunities for growth and change and learning. There are no absolutes in this life. And the only thing that separates people is attitude and perspective.

If you spend your life waiting and hoping for your circumstances to change in order for you to be happy, you will have wasted your time and all of your incredible potential. It is up to you to establish a vision and dream for your life and truly adopt the belief that you are enough and have what you need to get there. Start taking control of your thoughts and attitudes. Adopt a zero tolerance policy on negativity. Spend time thinking about all the things you have that you’re grateful for. Look for ways to serve other people and make a contribution to the world around you. I guarantee that whether you look for the positive or the negative, you will find it.